Davian

Zion's men led us to a two-room suite at the far end of the basement. I kept my arm around Adele, supporting her weight. She had a dazed look in her eyes, and her feet stumbled.

The suite had a small kitchenette with a sink, minifridge and microwave. Zion must host more humans than I realized because vampires certainly didn't cook.

A small living room held a sleek contemporary couch and arm chair overseen by a large flat screen television mounted on the wall. Through an open door, I spotted a bedroom holding a king-sized bed covered in a red comforter. The turn down revealed black silk sheets. To the side of the bed was a bathroom. Thick cotton towels hung on racks and trays of toiletries with elegant French labels lined the vanity.

Despite the luxurious decor, I knew I was a prisoner, and Adele would be held with me until Zion received his payment. Claiming her had just been the start of our deal. Now I had to deliver the money to cover her purchase, or I would find my head parted from my body as a security precaution.

Setting Adele on the couch, I went to my phone and started to move the money. A good faith deposit and then I would increase my order in the hopes of tracing his network back to the start.

The money transfer set up, I sent an encrypted message to the Contessa, my contact at the Council, and let her know my progress. Then I took care of my new charge. She needed food and water. She might allow her addictions to ravage her, but I wouldn't. Rapping on my suite door produced a guard who agreed to arrange for a pizza.

"And some wings, " Adele called to me from the couch. She looked more alert, although her body still sprawled in boneless angles on the couch.

"A dozen wings," I said to the guard. I'd spent enough time in modern bars to know what they were but had never eaten one. They smelled abysmal though—sour as vomit and spicy as fire.

"Oh, and a couple pints of ice cream. Something chocolate and caramel."

"Did you hear that?" I asked. The guard nodded. I turned back to Adele. "Anything else?"

She hesitated. "Do you mind? I'm starving."

I waved for her to join me. "Order what you want."

Biting her lip, she came to stand next to me. She didn't stumble as much, but held onto furniture for support. I hastened to offer her a hand, but she waved me away. The guard stiffened at her approach, his hand going to the taser at his belt, eyes tracking her movements.

She scoffed. "I'm in no shape to run away, and I'm not going to fight you because that would just be stupid. So relax."

"And she is bound to me," I said when the guard's hand didn't move. "I will not allow her to run."

"Oh, that's just...even more perfect. Thanks." Her tone nipped at me, sharp as puppy teeth.

At least the guard relaxed. His hand dropped to his side.

"What would you like to eat?" I motioned for her to speak.

Adele rattled off an impressive list of food to the guard. Tacos, burritos, different kinds of wings, hamburgers, chips, nachos, cheese sticks, fries—her knowledge of junk food was encyclopedic. The guard finally handed her his phone and had her dictate a list.

"You're going to eat all that?" I asked once the guard was gone.

She shrugged. "Shifters eat. It's what we do."

I pointed to the minifridge. "That's not going to hold a lot."

"Don't worry. I'll eat it." She stretched out on the couch with a yawn. Her eyes fluttered open and then shut. I let her sleep. She was less trouble that way.

Almost an hour later, the food arrived. The spicy, salty, sweet aroma of it stirred her into awareness. She sat up and twisted her body from side-to-side until her spine cracked. Somehow, she looked even more tired. Gray half moons hung under her eyes.

"Here," I said, setting the food on the coffee table.

She didn't even look at it. "Let me go. Please," she said, her voice faint. "I want to go home."

"You'd never make it. As you said, you're in no shape for anything. You can't run and Zion would gut you before you made it to the door. You want out of this? You need your strength." I tapped the pizza box.

She blinked at me. "Like you're going to let me go." Her gaze fell to the pizza and she leaned forward, reaching for it. Opening the box, she took a slice and tore off a big bite. Her stomach yowled with glee and pink flushed her cheeks at the noise.

"Eat. Otherwise you have zero chance of walking away from any of this."

"What do you care? I'm just dinner to you, right?" She was already on her second piece, gulping the pizza down in two big bites. I watched her throat ripple with every swallow, transfixed. She had beautiful skin. Translucent as an angel.

I closed my eyes, remembering the wild taste of her. "How did you get mixed up with Zion?"

She froze, one hand in the midst of reaching for more pizza. Ducking her head, she said, "I fucked up. That's how."

"I need specifics."

"Why?

I sent out a small burst of compulsion. I hated to do it, but I didn't have time to show her she could trust me.

"I'm an addict, okay?" Her eyes widened. She hadn't intended to say that.

"But you metabolize things too fast for a high." I narrowed my eyes. "Is there something new from the Chinese?"

She shook her head. "No. Designer chems are too expensive. I mix my own, there are...recipes online. Or I just mix old school stuff. Heroin and cocaine with PCP and pot. It works okay."

"That's a quick way to die." Even shifters had limits.

"And yet here I am." She shrugged and looked at the suite. "Although, I guess this isn't much better than dead."

"So Zion found you? Gave you drugs until you were incapacitated?"

She gave a short laugh. "Him? A dealer? He's not big on people skills, in case you haven't noticed. He hates the living. Hates 'em. That would never work."

"So how did he get you?"

"I wanted to get clean. There was an ad online. One hundred percent cure rate. Approved by the Pack Council." She closed her eyes and her shoulders slumped. "Oh God. I believed it. I came here and..." She motioned to her neck. "This is what I got. You."

I sat next to her and opened the web browser on my phone. "Can you find the ad?"

"Why?"

"I need to see it."

"Yeah. Okay. Sure." She tried to take the phone but I held onto it. With a huff, she used her finger to navigate. "You claimed me, remember? I don't think I can call for help."

"I'd rather not compel you."

"What do you care?'

"It's bad for your mind."

"After the drugs I've done, I doubt you're going to do any damage, but I appreciate that you're a gentleman." She tapped the screen on my phone. "Here's the ad."

I studied the site that came up, a forum that appeared to be about gardening with flashing ads for rehab. I clicked the ad.  "Approved by the Pack Council? They know about this?"

"They don't know it's this. They would never let this happen. It's a front. Just like that's not really a gardening forum."

"Okay. Tell me what happened from the beginning."

"I just wanted to get clean."

"Why?"

"Because I was going to kill myself. I'd started trying new things. Pushing for a bigger, better high no matter what it took. Did you know some recipes use nuclear waste?"

"No. I didn't know. That's crazy."

"It was getting to where that sounded good to me." A tremor ran through her body. "I couldn't stop. Not by myself."

I raised my eyebrows. "What did you want to live for?"

"What did you want to die for?" she shot back. "Or did they take you against your will?"

Her questions hit me like a slap. I pushed words through my clenched jaw and reminded myself she had no way to know my past. If she did, she wouldn't have ever challenged me like that. "No. It wasn't against my will."

"Then why?"

I knew why I'd made my choice all those hundreds of years ago, although nothing had happened the way I'd planned. Would I make the same choice again? I wasn't sure. "I thought I could make a difference."

"And now you've claimed your very own junkie. You must be thrilled. Is immortality everything you dreamed of? Is this the difference you wanted?" Acid laced her voice, lashing out at both of us.

I nudged her back on track. "You didn't answer my question. Why did you want to get clean?"

She looked away and was silent. "My sister deserves better. I never wanted to drag her into..." She made a helpless gesture with her hands. "...whatever it is that makes me like this, but I screwed that up."

"So you responded to the ad and...?"

"This alpha, Mason, tells me to come to Huntsville. Meets me in a bar. Some dive in the woods." She showed me the bruises marching up and down her arms. "He gave me good stuff. Best I ever had. He told me it was some new synthetic shit from the Tiger Clan in China. I woke up here. That's all I know."

I frowned at the mention of China. It meant Zion had sourced some of the most sophisticated drugs on the planet. The Chinese didn't see drugs as a taboo, not when they were profiting off them. They had entire labs, right out in the open, making drugs for humans and shifters alike.

I'd started my career on the East Coast docks, hunting their shipments and destroying anything I found. The sheer volume of drugs they pumped into the US was stunning. It was like trying to stop Niagara Falls. It had been a frustrating job, and I'd welcomed the move to special investigations once the Chinese knew my face.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"I don't know. Time is weird down here in the dark, and Zion doped me a couple times. I know I landed at the Nashville airport on the tenth."

"It's been about a week, then."

"Geez. I've lost that much time?" She grabbed another piece of pizza in one hand and unwrapped a taco with the other. "No wonder I'm starving. I don't think they've fed me anything but drugs since I got here."

I rubbed my chin and considered what she'd told me. Mason was a dirty alpha. He would have to be dealt with, preferably by the Pack Council who would make a warning of him. Of course, that meant we'd have to come clean to the Pack Council which would be a diplomatic nightmare. Vampires and shifters didn't get along so well. We were better at destroying each other. I had the scars to prove it.

"Is there anyone else involved?"

She finished the pizza and started in on the tacos, pausing to answer my question."Not that I saw. But if you can grab Zion's phone, you'll know everyone he's been talking to. That thing is attached to his jaw like a growth. He's never not talking to someone."

"All right. Thanks for your help."

She nodded and then went still. Her gaze locked with mine.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Strange. I thought I would feel our bite somehow. But there's nothing there."

"I told you, I don't want to compel you."

"Why not?" she asked. "Aren't I yours?"

"You're not a possession."

"To Zion, I am."

"I'm not him." I tightened my jaw, at the thought of that soulless low life giving her drugs, let alone touching her. He was poison. I hoped the Vampire Council executed him. That would be my recommendation in my report.

"The thing is, for the first time since I was a kid, I don't crave a hit. What do you think that is?"

The hope filling her eyes ignited an unpleasant wariness in my gut. My sister had looked up to me like that, and it hadn't helped her. Not even close. "I'm not your savior, Adele."

"And yet, you're saving me. There's something about you..." She slid closer to me and her soft lips captured mine. Despite her slender frame, her body still held curves that felt entirely too good pressed against me.

A wave of want clawed over me, tearing open old wounds. I battled with myself for a long moment. I wanted to rip off Adele's clothes and lose myself in her. I could already feel her legs around me, knew exactly how my cock would pulse inside her at the sound of her screaming my name. The smell of her filled me, fur and lilacs. It teased me with all that I could have if I just...gave in. Yes. Just have my way with her and use her body to satiate my desires.

With a control I didn't know I had and knew I couldn't trust, I wrenched my thoughts away from Adele. This could not happen. I wouldn't allow it.

I stood and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her up until just her toes touched the floor.

"Hey!" She struggled against my grip. "What are you doing?"

I shoved her into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Noticing the key in the lock, I turned it. She pounded the door, screaming for me to let her out.

"Go to sleep," I said, slipping the key into my pocket

"Fuck you! You don't get to tell me what to do." She kicked the door. It shook, but didn't break under her rage, so it must have been made with shifters in mind. Perhaps a steel core of some kind. Zion definitely had an eye for detail.

"Go to bed and sleep," I said, making it a compulsion. I hated to do it, but, for both our sakes, I needed to maintain control.

There was a half-hearted thump on the door and then nothing. I gave it a minute before cracking the door open to check on her. Adele lay sprawled on the bed, limbs in all directions. I shut the door and just leaned against it for a second.

For the first time in centuries, I was breathing—a hard, heavy pant—and my heart throbbed in my chest, filling my ears with thunder. I was having a human flashback, a vestigial memory of when I'd been alive and could still feel something.

I forced myself to move and put the food away, glad to have something to keep my hands busy. My mind still raced, though. She was a girl, an addict shifter, a nothing in my world. And yet, she was more dangerous than Zion. Because when she'd kissed me, she'd smelled like she belonged to me and I could never have her.